2023 - #09: CALLING ON THE US TO INCLUDE MORE COMPREHENSIVE DATA COLLECTION ON NATIVE AFFILIATIONS

WHEREAS, the National Indian Education Association (NIEA) was established in 1970 for the purpose of advocating, planning, and promoting the unique and special educational needs of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians; and

WHEREAS, NIEA as the largest national Native organization of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian educators, administrators, parents, and students in the United States, provides a forum to discuss and act upon issues affecting the education of Indian and Native people; and

WHEREAS, through its unique relationship with Native nations and tribes, the federal government has established programs and resources to meet the educational needs of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians, residing on and off their reserved or non-reserved homelands; and

WHEREAS, the two or more races category for data collection, when further description of which two or more races is not required, creates a miscellaneous or “other” category of people where the integrity of data tracking Native students is often lost, and our citizens’ identities are often lost, for example, when a student is both Caucasian and American Indian, they may be categorized into a miscellaneous category of “two or more races”; and

WHEREAS, accurate and comprehensive data around American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children is essential to reporting, funding, and decision making purposes for our Tribal Nations and our education systems; and

WHEREAS, data collection should include Native affiliations in recognition of the unique political status Natives hold in the United States, even separate from the race question similar to the Hispanic ancestry question; and

WHEREAS, NIEA continues to respect the soverign authority of Tribal Nations in determining their own enrollment policies, data control, and citizenship requirements, as is protected by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the National Indian Education Association calls for the US Census Bureau, the National Center for Education Statistics, the US Office of Management and Budget, the US Department of Education, and state education departments to work to include more comprehensive data collection on native affiliation, including but not limited to: requiring the “two or more races” option be properly disaggregated by requiring a response to which races, including a self-reporting Native affiliation question, and adding a question on Native affiliation as separate from the race-questions, similar to the Hispanic ethnicity question; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that this resolution shall be the policy of NIEA until it is withdrawn or modified by subsequent resolution.